Keeping violent young offenders locked up until they are no longer young seems to help. But another problem is these guys get released, they often have no where to go, and can't get employment because of their record. I know a lot of people will say so what, that's good...but it's causing a lot of problems, including of course more crime by guys who're now hardened and well schooled. It's easy to say just lock them up forever or kill them all, but we all know this isn't going to happen.

The for-profit companies and organizations set up to profit from our prison system of course love this set up and status quo, as do many police who make big $ in O.T., paid details, etc.,

1) end all victimless crime, drugs, prostitution, painting your house the wrong color.2) full restitution instead of jail for initial property crimes. Break a car window that costs $400 to replace, your working that off at minimum wage cleaning up around town. Victim gets full compensation.3) spur of the moment fights and the like also restitution.4) serious violent crimes, jail and full restitution.

first of all, NOBODY awaits trial in a "prison". they are kept in jails. while it may make little difference to most (including those in the cage), there is a huge difference. that difference is WHO gets their paws on the fed dough, and WHOSE budget the costs come out of. the law enforcement system is a revenue generation device at county and township levels. one need only examine news stories of county and town government corruption scandals to "get" why they like prisoners languishing in their systems. a 5% skim can easily be concealed by creative book keeping. another 2% returns as kickbacks directly from vendors and suppliers. add in the "court cost fees", levied fines, fed and state "legal aid contributions" and kickbacks from the rehabs, halfway houses, and other "conditional release" schemes. it is a HUGE pile of dough. to put it in perspective, my county government is spending 2 billion bucks on a new courthouse, while crying poverty. a 2% skim on that sum (the local kickback cut demanded by elected officials for a contract) is 40 million bucks. that project is funded by a bond issue, so the final cost to taxpayers will be higher because of the interest on the bonds. get the picture? 2/3 of all funding for incarceration goes through those same corrupt paws.